Food conglomerate is sold a 3d time

LONDON -- Blackstone Group LP has agreed to buy Pinnacle Foods Group Inc. for $2.2 billion, including debt, becoming the third private-equity firm in four years to own the maker of Duncan Hines cake mixes and Hungry Man frozen dinners.

Blackstone, of New York, is acquiring Pinnacle, of Cherry Hill, N.J., from CCMP Capital Advisors LLC, formerly JPMorgan Partners, the companies said yesterday. Blackstone did not say how much debt was involved.

Pinnacle, which has annual gross sales of about $2.1 billion, received competing offers, including from an undisclosed hedge-fund company, chairman C. Dean Metropoulos said. CCMP Capital will recoup about 2 1/2 times its original cash investment, he said.

Blackstone recently raised a $15.6 billion fund, the world's biggest.

"Several people came to us and said can we convince you not to go public and sell us the business," Metropoulos said. "We got a very fair value, and we're leaving a fair amount. It's a great platform for acquisitions in the next couple of years."

Pinnacle, with more than 3,000 employees, also makes Aunt Jemima breakfast foods, Vlasic pickles, Armour canned meat, and Lender's bagels. In the year to March 2004, revenue was $1.4 billion.